Eight years ago, I was interviewed for the magazine BaliSavvy, “the official American Express® guide to the island”. I found a copy of that 2010 interview recently in an archive of the adversities I have endured since March 2010. I decided to post it here, in several installments, as … Continue reading →

When Peter ten Hoopen travelled across the Indonesian archipelago in the 1970s, he was taken by the textile arts he saw along the way. Ikat weaving is a common thread that ties together the diversity of this nation’s myriad cultures and traditions, and unites the layers of history it was … Continue reading →

Paul Kijlstra is a man with a passion. A passion for Indonesian nobility, its history, legacy, and all manner of material manifestations. He’s assembled an enormous collection of images illustrating all things noble, from one end of the archipelago to the other. You can browse the collection here in his … Continue reading →

The moment we’ve all been waiting for with bated breath has come at last. Made Wijaya’s Majapahit Style has been released (the party vid is here), and what a book it is. More than a book. Like Made’s earlier masterwork, The Architecture of Bali, it’s encyclopaedic and opens many doors … Continue reading →

BRUNO PIAZZA: MASTERPIECE My beloved husband Bruno Piazza died at home in Bali, at dawn on Friday the 28th of October, 2011 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Bruno lived an extraordinary and beautiful life, and (not surprisingly) he died a remarkably beautiful death. He was not an … Continue reading →

A large-scale exhibition entitled Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance will open in February 2011 at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, one of the world’s most respected institutions for Asian art. This is big news. Exciting news. The show includes works on loan from numerous international collections, many which have never … Continue reading →

Our gallery of ancestral arts, ornament, weapons and textiles in Seminyak has been open for more than a year. Better late than never, at long last we have our website up. At present, there are 66 pieces from our inventory shown in the “collections” area of the site. We’ll be … Continue reading →

With museum exhibitions and fairs all over the calendar, San Francisco has no “season” for tribal arts and textiles. The most notable fall fair Tribal SF 2010 starts later this week. It’s organised by the local independent dealer’s association, SF Tribal, and kicks off with a champagne preview reception on … Continue reading →

It’s too splendid to miss. An exhibition of 300 artefacts from Sumatra opened last night at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. “Sumatra: Isle of Gold” runs from today through 7 November 2010, giving us all plenty of time to plan a Singapore stopover to see the show, which is … Continue reading →

Last Saturday I presented a program on Indonesian arts and antiquities for a group of young CEOs in Ubud, at Gallery Macan Tidur. Based on these snapshots it looks like I gave an animated performance – – despite the fact I was on crutches, having only just been liberated from … Continue reading →

Last June I heard Bill Gates bought Irma Lake Ranch in Wyoming, the property of a dear friend of mine, Roger W. Hollander. I was happy to receive the news. I loved this place passionately, and will never forget the times that I spent there. Knowing the ranch remains in private hands is somehow heartening. … Continue reading →

ICON Asian Arts (Bali) and Editions Didier Millet (Singapore) are collaborating to raise Javanese antiques to the level of fine art. The Bali gallery will host on 3 December 2009 two simultaneous events: the opening of the world premier exhibition of the Smith-Tirtoprodjo Collection of Javanese antiques; and the launch of … Continue reading →

If you’re not in Paris right now, you missed it. Parcours des Mondes is now undeniably the ultimate event on earth for non-western art or arts premier *. It takes place in Paris every September, and if you’re not there now, you missed it, because it ends tomorrow. Book now … Continue reading →

The Ashmolean is rebooting. Big plans and improvements are underway, with 39 new galleries happening, to the tune of £61 million. Among them is a major new space for textiles. Textilism is officially a trend. In recent years numerous upper-echelon museums have created spaces devoted to textiles as art, notably … Continue reading →

Pablo Bartholomew‘s arresting images of the Naga peoples of Burma and India have been up at the Rubin Museum in New York since March. The show closes 21 September, so if you haven’t had an opportunity to see it yet, make one. The Naga tribes as a group are among … Continue reading →

Fine tribal and Asian art gets more attention now than ever, but where are the avid buyers of yesteryear? If the (almost) concurrent BRUNEAF and BOAF fairs in Brussels this June were any indication, there’s plenty of solitude for art afficionados to quietly contemplate the works on offer (like Davide … Continue reading →

It’s a fun theme for an exhibition, “Hunters & Collectors.” And an interesting opportunity to consider the history of collecting itself as an anthropological phenomenon. The age of plundering in the jungles is over, and attitudes toward cultural property and buccaneerism have shifted 180 degrees. Still, you can relive the … Continue reading →

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Asia Society, New York, offer an unprecedented exhibition of art from ancient Viet Nam—the first U.S. exhibition to address in depth the historical, geographic and cultural contexts of precolonial Vietnamese art. Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea will expose … Continue reading →

Bird’s eye view of Fort Mason during the SF Tribal & Textiles Show 2009 The San Francisco Tribal Art & Textiles Fair is normally the most lively fixture on the tribal/textiles circuit. Held every year in February, the show draws over 100 dealers from around the world and buyers from … Continue reading →

Better late than never, here’s a review of the October group show by SF|Tribal, an association of Bay Area dealers. This year the event, entitled Primal at the Presidio, had a superb venue (Herbst Pavilion), for the weekend show and opening party. Numerous prominent dealers in fine Indonesian textiles and … Continue reading →

One of the blogs I cherish most is Curious Expeditions, an extraordinary emporium of the esoteric and ancient. I adore the esoteric, and the ancient, as a general rule. Today I was hypnotised by their report on the architectural oddities of Cappadocia.

I have always been a big fan of small containers. They imply the concealment and protection of something precious, something treasured – – or treacherous. The tribal cultures of Southeast Asia have produced some of the most beautiful and enigmatic small containers ever. Apparently I’m not the only one who … Continue reading →

On 27 September a large collection of Indonesian weapons will go on the block at the Kunsthandel Klefish auction house in Köln. Such a large and diverse collection of Indonesian kris, swords, daggers and other blades has never before appeared in a single auction. A number of interesting ethnographic objects … Continue reading →

The Parcours des Mondes tribal art fair in Paris has been a fixture on the calendars of dealers, collectors and connoisseurs for seven years now. Each year it has expanded and diversified, and this year is no exception. More exhibitors, more spaces. And new directions. Contemporary art and photography are … Continue reading →

Here is another special summer exhibition on at the Met that’s a crowd-pleaser, a kid-pleaser, and also pleasing to serious connoisseurs. Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru, which stays up until 1 September. Many of these seventy-or-so masterpieces of featherwork are a millenium and a half old. … Continue reading →

The Antique Luzon Tribal Art Connoisseurs Organisation (ALTACO) website is simple in presentation, but rich with images and information. I specialise in the arts of the Indonesian archipelago, and don’t often go exploring online for information on Luzon art, but I happened to stumble on this site today. The extensive … Continue reading →

An in-depth interview with tribal art dealer Joel Cooner has just been posted on the Tribalmania website. Joel is known for his exquisite eye and his talent for arranging artefacts in such a way that the arrangements are works of art in their own right. In the interview Cooner reveals … Continue reading →

We are serious about ancient beads, and have a large collection which my partner, Bruno uses to compose striking necklaces which are eminently wearable. We study bead history, and often comb the web looking for images and information. Today I found an extraordinary ancient natron-etched Dzi bead that has just … Continue reading →